It is well-known that computers, servers, disk drives and other electronic equipment mounted in equipment racks will generate heat when operated. It is also well-known that if semiconductors within the electronic equipment get too hot, they can fail, thus making it important to keep electronic equipment cool.
One method of cooling rack-mounted electronic equipment is to locate the equipment and the racks that hold the equipment in an enclosed room, where the temperature of the enclosed room is controlled using air conditioning equipment. Once the air in the enclosed room has been cooled, the electronic equipment is cooled using passive or active cooling techniques. Passive techniques for keeping the air adjacent to a hot surface of an electronic device cool rely on convection currents that are created by the hot surfaces of an electronic device. For additional cooling, active cooling techniques such as electric cooling fans and fluid pumps are used to locally dissipate heat within an individual piece of electronic equipment. Electronic equipment often uses intake and/or exhaust fans for local heat dissipation within the electronic equipment. Local dissipation of heat within the electronic equipment is inefficient when multiple pieces of electronic equipment are located within a single equipment rack.